WGBH Western Avenue bridge demolition

When WGBH Educational Foundation built new studios for its radio and TV operations on Market Street in Brighton, they constructed a pedestrian walkway over Guest Street to connect their new building (1 Guest Street) with an office building they had leased for some time (10 Guest Street). Boston Redevelopment Authority regulations restrict pedestrian walkways over Boston city streets to a maximum of one per owner, so before they can get a permanent certificate of occupancy for the new building, WGBH's general contractor, Turner Construction, had to demolish the old walkway connecting the old WGBH studios (125 Western Avenue) with the legal department and other administrative offices across the street (114 Western Avenue). These buildings are all being demolished in a few months' time by Harvard University, which owns the property here and is expanding its Allston campus, but the BRA would not allow WGBH to leave the bridge standing for Harvard to eventually demolish.

The demolition took place on the morning of July 7, 2007. Turner Construction subcontracted the demolition to Costello Dismantling of Middleborough, Mass. A small complication (although fortuitous for me) was a requirement on the part of the authorities to maintain a pedestrian pathway through the work site, so I could watch the process from both sides (a necessity given the large trees in front of the building).